development since they interact with each other to promote development. Meyer and Theron (2000: 1-5) relate CP strategy to a social learning processes linking the “building blocks” of development. The “building blocks” of development are tools or principles used to transform learning and decision-making in order to manage resources for the fulfilment of the community’s basic needs (Mac Kay, 2004: 22). Examples of the “building blocks” in development include; partnership, social learning, capacity-building, empowerment, self-reliance and sustainability.
2.4.1 Community Partnership
Brinkerhoff (2000: 218) defines CP as “a dynamic relationship among diverse actors, based on mutually agreed objectives, pursued through a shared understanding of the most rational
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division of labour, based on respective comparative advantages of each partner”. CP in development promotes respect, creates a sense of belonging, opens up the community to opportunities and creates room for social learning. According to Swanepoel and De Beer (2011:
50), it is believed that when CP is promoted, indigenous knowledge will be embraced and used as a strategy for development.
CP can be promoted through capacity-building and social learning from all stakeholders.
Participating parties exchange information, thoughts, experiences and beliefs which become their learning ground. However, CP may mean taking part in an initiative without being the leader to complete a given task and in this case the community has no power to influence decision-making. According to Narayana (2002: 6), if well implemented, CP breaks the cycle of dependency in top-down development. In this regard, the community participates and contributes towards development through a bottom-up approach. Figures 2.1 and 2.2 show the effect of top-down and bottom-up approaches to CP in promoting development.
Adapted from Narayana (2002: 6)
Figure 2:1: Effect of a top-down approach in CP to promote development
Receiving free
donations from outside
Outsiders initiate and
implement community projects
Community cannot work without external supports
Lack of energy and enthusiasm by the community Community
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Adapted from Narayana (2002: 6)
2.4.2 Social learning
Social learning in the context of CP refers to “a collective process whereby neighbourhoods, villages, communities and the nation prepare, not only to adjust to change, but also to direct change to suit their own purposes” (Soedjatmoko, 1986: 20). Just like CP, social learning has an influence on both communities’ and planners’ behaviour, thinking and understanding through social interaction. Social learning transforms partnerships to create a new relationship built on a co-operative understanding, increases acceptability of the project, trust and management of the project in the community (Soedjatmoko, 1986: 20). Social learning is intended to embrace indigenous knowledge and social capital to mitigate complexity, uncertainty and conflicts in the community. Social learning can be achieved through a deliberation process which involves all types of communication to raise concern and understanding among stakeholders to develop substantive decisions (Schusler et al., 2003:
312). As shown in figure 2.3, social learning is a process that involves various activities to promote change in the community.
Respect for the poor
Accountability
Permanent partnership
Participatory working and equal benefits
Participatory planning and decision-making
Community
Sustainability of the project
Figure 2:2: Effect of a bottom-up approach in CP to promote development
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Adapted from Schusler et al. (2003: 318-322).
From figure 2.3, various processes foster social learning in CP which are further summarised by Schusler et al. (2003: 318-322):
Open communication: it creates a platform for dialogue where community issues are openly discussed with all stakeholders. Such platforms for dialogue create an understanding between different individuals.
Unrestrained thinking: the community gets an in-depth understanding since they are allowed to share ideas that may support their development. Unrestrained thinking creates room for open communication and develops a mutual understanding.
Constructive conflict: it helps to identify areas where communities agree or disagree to seek solutions to problems. Through constructive conflicts, participating parties identify the strengths and weaknesses of various individuals and how they relate to one another in the
Figure 2.3: The process of social learning to impact change
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community. It also helps both the experts and the community to identify problem sources and how they can be resolved.
Democratic structure: it creates room for community members to develop new ideas and possibilities. Communities are allowed to elect their representatives who will remain accountable to their community. For example the Resource User Committees in wildlife management present community needs to the conservation authorities or other participating partners.
Multiple sources of knowledge: to identify alternative solutions, generate policy choices and also activities that may reduce the occurrence of the problem in the community. It is noted that communities consist of different talented and knowledgeable persons who are well informed about their society and this provides room for extensive information about a problem.
Extended engagement: social learning is a continuous process in a community. Extended engagement increases the relationship between facilitators and the community, builds trust and social learning among stakeholders.
2.4.3 Capacity-building
According to Swanepoel and De Beer (2011: 26), capacity-building is the strengthening of personal and institutional ability to undertake and execute tasks. This includes CP in decision-making and access to project resources, as well as increased awareness and power sharing among targeted groups. Monaheng (2000: 135) argues that capacity-building in CP increases access to information, promotes social mobilization, financial resources, and creativity among communities through acquired indigenous knowledge and social capital from the community.
This can be achieved by supporting the community-initiated skills that may trigger working together to impact a positive change (Swanepoel & De Beer, 2011: 26-27). In order to promote capacity-building, planners should work directly with the community groups, individuals, or a community as a whole to empower and build confidence in disadvantaged communities.
Swanepoel and De Beer (2011:26) find that capacity-building is best understood when considered as an integral part of an on-going process. Their argument is founded on the premise that capacity-building helps individuals to acquire skills and competence, and enables them to be stable, independent and self-confident. It is only when people enter into such a range of situations that they can actively seek solutions that work for them.
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2.4.4 Empowerment
Community empowerment is often misused by agencies/organisations. For example, some organisations refer to empowerment as partnership, while others regard it as equipping community members with skills to carry out a particular job. Some refer to it as providing information, and implementing a project in a community. Swanepoel and De Beer (2011: 52) argue that empowerment does not only involve the above. It also includes a set of activities such as decisions-making sharing power, providing communities with knowledge/skills and promoting self-reliance. Empowerment should be carried out through all project stages. It should ideally encourage maximum participation of community members in all project phases3 to promote positive change in the community (Becker, 1997: 155). However, this is not the case, since some projects are time and fund limited while others are influenced by politics leading to less community empowerment.
2.4.5 Self-reliance
Self-reliance in CP is “a state of mind with regards to one’s mental and material resources as a primary stock to draw on in the pursuit of objectives, and finds emotional fulfilment not only achieving the objectives but of having achieved them primarily by using one’s own resources”
(Fonchingong & Fonjong, 2003: 199). Therefore communities learn how to appreciate their local knowledge and skills to solve identified problems; this may begin with small groups to solve little problems with less support from experts (Burkey, 1993: 50). Self-reliance enables communities to comfortably identify and voluntarily contribute towards the required local resources to solve local context-specific problems. Self-reliance has the same principles as self-help and mutual self-help; it enables local communities to explore their potentialities and resources that were dormant or exploited by experts or external agencies. In this regard, self-reliance breaks the cycle of poverty and ignorance through empowering communities (Fonchingong &
Fonjong, 2003: 198-199). According to Burkey (1993: 51) self-reliance is a learning process.
However, it cannot be given as a material to the community as top-down approach does.
2.4.6 Sustainability
Drexhage and Murphy (2010: 20), indicate that Governments and agencies should develop project plans that involve local authorities and communities to promote community environmental awareness and management. Sustainability can be implemented through
3 initiation, designing, organising, and implementing activities
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encouraging transparency, accountability, respect and partnership among participating stakeholders to influence decision-making on environmental management. Project plans for sustainability can be viewed in the context whereby activities are maintained in the community even if the actual project is phased out. In this way, sustainability enables communities to adapt to change and make independent decisions with or without external support thus avoiding exploitation from external planners. In addition, sustainability can be best promoted through community empowerment and capacity-building that may trigger self-help projects among community members (Tango International, 2009: 8-9).
Project sustainability can also be viewed as a golden rule whereby no development project should harm the environment (Swanepoel & De Beer, 2011: 53). This is because most of the development projects directly or indirectly affect the environment as a whole. Therefore, development projects should promote social, economic, political and bio-physical development in a community, thus promoting sustainable development. According to the Bruntland Report (1987: 16), sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs”. Swilling and Annecke (2012: 51) further assert that sustainable development should not be seen as a fixed state of harmony, but a process of change towards conservation for present and future needs. However, Norgaard (1994: 117) argues that it is difficult to promote sustainable development when the existing communities (especially in Africa) are poor and depend on natural resources for survival. This becomes difficult for the present generation to sustainably utilise natural resources thus breaking the principles of sustainable development. Nevertheless, community empowerment depends on the type and level of Community Participation in a project.